This book is about the first impression all humans have in a blink of an eye about every situation in daily life. Our mind is drawing conclusions in an instant about meeting people for the first time, entering a lecture hall, reading the first lines of a book etc. The author describes how one can use the power of rapid cognition to ones advantages but also how one can be tricked by it. It's more or less a report based on the scientific field of psychology which is easy to understand. But in my opinion only tells us what we deep inside us have already known. I liked the book for it's descriptiveness though. Gladwell introduces us to cases which are entertaining like adventure stories. I also liked that he often gets back on cases when he revealed another part about rapid cognition.
I missed some information on why we are able to make decisions based on first impressions though. I would have been interested in what happens inside our mind or body when we get strange knowing feelings about things we can't actually know.
My star rating: 3 out of 5 stars.
I felt the same way as you when I read the book. I loved the stories that illustrated the decisions people make (I still think about them and I read the book a few years ago), but I felt like there wasn't enough scientific information in it. The "Why" seemed to be missing. Still, I thought it was a fun read and definitely want to read his other books. Will you read any of his others?
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure. I haven't heard much about other books written by him. Maybe one day ...
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